The first CONTROL Resonant reviews have arrived ahead of the game's September 24 release, and Remedy Entertainment's biggest gamble appears to have paid off for most critics. Early snapshots shared Friday placed the sequel's Metacritic and OpenCritic averages in the mid-80s, though those figures can move as more reviews are added.
The broad agreement is that Resonant looks and feels unmistakably like a Remedy game even after replacing much of the original Control's ranged gunplay with close-range combat. Dylan Faden, Jesse's brother and the sequel's sole playable character, fights through a Manhattan distorted by paranatural forces using the Aberrant, a shapeshifting melee weapon.
VGC awarded the game 5/5, praising the genre change, performances, art direction and soundtrack. Its review found the combat weighty and responsive, with boss fights serving as a showcase for Remedy's character and environmental design. It also noted that some open-zone activities become repetitive late in the game.
Critics agree on the spectacle, but not the combat
The positive consensus has limits. PC Gamer scored CONTROL Resonant 76, celebrating Remedy's surreal New York environments while arguing that the game contains too many hours of middling combat. That split captures the main question surrounding the sequel: whether its aggressive melee system can carry a substantially larger adventure.
Remedy says the new combat is designed around reading enemy attacks, managing stagger and status effects, and timing dodges. Players who find that demanding can tune individual settings in Assist Mode without disabling trophies or achievements, according to the studio's PlayStation Blog breakdown.
CONTROL Resonant launches September 24 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Its early reviews suggest the move beyond the Oldest House has preserved Remedy's taste for visual spectacle, even as critics disagree about the combat holding it all together.
